

| LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.! 

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D. 0. M. 


THE TRIUNE; 

4 

OB 


THE NEW RELIGION. 


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y 

BY SCRUTATOR, 

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“ I am, myself, in favour of free inquiry on all subjects, civil and religious, 
“ with no condition but that it be pursued with learning, argument, and eon- 
“ science.”—Mr. Disraeli, M.P., v. Times, November , 15, 1861. 

“ By, degrees an idea of vast potency has gained sway, namely, the principle 
“ that every man has an absolute, indefeasible, illimitable right to thinkjhis own 
“faith out for himself .”—Ideas of the Day, by Charles Buxton, M>A.,M.P. 1866. 

“ As men advance from an imperfect to a higher civilisation, they naturally 
“ sublimate and refine their Creed Becky’s Rise and Influence of Rationalism. 
—Longman and Co., 1865. 

“Q esteemed Syrian friends, we bid you farewell, and desire you to consider 
“ these things ; and be assured that the days come when there shall be no more 
“ Jews and Samaritans, no more Christians andj Moslems, no more Druses, 
“ Melualis, Maronites, Greeks and Armenians.” * * * “For ye who are 
“the people of many creeds, are the children of one God, and ye shall hereafter 
“be the citizens of one nation, ye shall live as brethren.” — The Neio Koran, or 
the Bible of Scientific Theology-Councils, c. xvi., v. 43,44.-—Farrah, 232, Strand. 


■oo — 


LONDON: 

TRUBNER AND CO 
1867. 

(COPYRIGHT RESIERVED.) 








J. E. ACW6RTH, 
PRINTER, BROADWAY, 

EALING. 





. i *' 


THE CONTENTS. 




The Preface... 

The Dedication . 

Man—His origin . 1 

Animals inferior to Man—Their origin and capacity. 2 

Man—Ilis capacity for religious civilization . 3 

The God of Science . 13 

Evil—What it is. 14 

Good—What it is .. 15 

Why Good and Evil exist. 16 

Satan . 17 

Christ and herein of Miracles. 18 

Sacerdotal Christianity . 29 

Frophecy and herein further of Miracles. 31 

The Apostles . 35 

Death . 37 

A Future Life. 39 

The New Religion and herein further of Miracles . 41 

Birth Sin. 43 

The Summary.. 46 

The Conclusion . 49 

The Triune. 51 


EKjtATA.^ln p. 21, line 18, for bo read by, 
In p, 28, line 1, read A Being* 
















































































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c:;:";;; 






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... . 













PRE FACE. 

- 00 — 

To the reader desirous to know why these pages have been 
published, the author of them, with all due respect, puts the 
following questions—viz., Whether any known Religion truly re¬ 
presents what God is ? Why Death exists ? and What the Origin 
and Object of Good and of Evil are ? Whether any known Religion 
is capable of raising mankind to the highest degree of religious 
civilisation of which human nature is capable, or of creating uni¬ 
versal unanimity? Whether as regards its scheme for man’s 
spiritual destiny, every known religion is not inferior to what a 
good and sagacious man would himself have designed and construc¬ 
ted, had he had in his power, when creating the first males and 
females of the human race, the future destiny of them and their 
posterity ? 

Moreover, every known religion recognises, in some way, a sus - 
pension or violation by God of his own laws,—of which the Virgin- 
bom Child is an example, and it is alleged that these miracles 
must be credited, because Reason is not sufficient for all purposes 
of Religion ( a ). Now, if historical and present events prove to the 
diligent and impartial inquirer, that the negative is the only true 
answer to the foregoing questions, and that every existing religion 
has failed to civilise mankind; then it may be contended success¬ 
fully, that the natural sentiment of religion has never yet been 
truly cultivated, and that a religion of a higher character, more 
devotional and more practical than any as yet existing, is in store 
for mankind. Such a religion is the natural offspring of Science, 
and of Science only. There has been, in truth, always a divine light 
shining on mankind; but as the Australian savage trod the 
auriferous earth for generations ignorant of its value, so mankind 
have had around them for all past time the materials of a common 
religion deducible from the unerring laws of God, and yet have 
remained hitherto ignorant of them. 


(a) Aids to Fmth, p. 38. 




II 


This age is, fortunately, an age of Science and of Facts—and 
Science insists upon Religion being brought within its jurisdiction, 
together with every other subject a benevolent Deity has submitted 
to the consideration of mankind ; and as science is the offspring of 
laws perfect in their conception and operation, whatever Science 
discovers in Religion must be true. Science repudiates the idea of 
God creating any imperfect machine, because if He were to so act, 
he would be inferior to man. Science, therefore, discredits any 
violation by God of his own laws, or any addition thereto, not 
rendered necessary by a new creation. Science, moreover, discloses 
to man not only the existence and omnipotence of an Infinite God, 
but His moral, and intellectual, and physical nature; the origin 
and object of Death; the origin and object of Good and Evil; why 
man was created, and in what condition ; for what object his race 
is continued ; and, lastly, Science points out man’s religious duties 
in this life, and his destiny in a future world. Science, in short, 
unfolds and permanently establishes Truths, which, without any 
miracle, manifest to man the Existence, the Goodness, the Wisdom, 
and the Power of an Infinite Deity, and which generate in the 
human soul a religion corresponding to that Deity—a religion 
superlatively practical—a religion causing those deeds of goodness, 
Scientific Theology requires, and which a religiously civilised con¬ 
science instinctively knows to be acceptable to the God it worships. 
This is the new religion required by the present enlightened age, by 
natural progress in knowledge of the human intellect—this is the 
religion which is essential to the regeneration of mankind—the 
religion which can alone make wars to cease, and which can alone 
insure the ultimate civilisation of the whole human race, and pre¬ 
pare man, as regards his soul, for a higher organisation after death. 

In the following pages an attempt is made from philotheanthropic 
motives, to introduce to the notice of the public, this religion, and 
to establish the great truth,* that Reason is all-sufficient for every 
purpose of Religion. 


31st December, 1866. 


THE AUTHOR. 


The Dedication. 


. — ■ ■ ■ ■■ 00 —— — ■■ 

DEO OMNIPOTENT! OPTIMO MAXIMO 

Quem solum agnoscimus 
Dominum Diyinum et Infinitum 
Quem solum precamur 
Sit Gloria 

Ab ^TERNO NUNC ET PER SPECULA SjECULORUM 

DEUS SPIRITUS DIYINUS 
Omnium yisibilium et inyisibilium 
Originator et Creator et Conservator 
Rerum jeternarum Gubernator 
Animarum hominum mortalium Salyator 
Malorum Ademtor 

EST 

Nostra salus et tutamen 
Et in vita et in morte 

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D. 0. M. 


THE TRIUNE; 


OR, THE 

CREED OE THE ENGLISH PEOPLE 

IN THE YEAR OF CHRIST, 1966; 

BEING A SHORT TREATISE ON SCIENTIFIC THEOLOGY, 
AND ITS APPROACHING MORAL AND SPIRITUAL OPERATION. 


MAN.-HIS ORIGIN. 

The different form of the skull and jaw-bones 
amongst vaiious large sections of mankind, the 
difference in colour and hair, the difference in language 
and customs, the various grades of civilization ; (some 
races being apparently without any progress, others 
progressing;) the variety of religions amongst different 
nations, the variety of food used for human sustenance, 
and the impossibility that there could ever have been 
the means for mankind, if multiplying themselves from 
one pair of progenitors, reaching, by any natural mode 
of transit, the various isolated regions in which man 


2 


is found ;—all these facts inductively prove, that several 
pairs of men and women, of different races, were the 
first progenitors of mankind; and that of each race a 
single pair or a plurality of pairs were created ; and as 
they could have had no parents, there was no object 
in creating them as babes: they were therefore created 
adults, and were located on this earth in divers places. 
It is thus proved that the Red Indian and the 
Papuan, the Negro and the Malay, the Tartar and the 
European, are not descended from common ancestors. 


ANIMALS INFERIOR TO MAN.-THEIR ORIGIN 

AND CAPACITY. 

Animals inferior to man were originally created and 
placed on this earth under laws analogous to those ob¬ 
served with regard to man, but such animals are adapted 
for, a temporary existence only: hence the intellectual 
and physical structure of animals inferior to man, is 
absolutely perfect. The laws they observe are also 
perfect: for example, the horse has no affinity for the 
cow. Moreover all gregarious animals have perfect 
social laws. Nevertheless, these inferior animals, so 
called, have, apparently, no history, no literature, no 
progress, no improvement, no morals, no religion. 
Being created perfect, those endowments are unneces¬ 
sary for their happiness or advancement, and hence they 
have not been conferred upon them; but it is not so 
with man; for, except that for some special purpose, 
some animals have perceptions and strength far superior 
to any man possesses, yet man is superlatively superior 



3 


to all other animals. He has, but not universally,history, 
literature, progress, improvement, knowledge, morals, 
religion; and though he cannot construct a bird’s nest, 
or scent his food like the jackal or the vulture, and 
though, physically, he yields to the lion and many 
other brutes, yet he enslaves or kills them. 


MAN,-HIS CAPACITY FOR RELIGIOUS CIVILIZATION. 

As regards his intellectual and moral condition, man 
is created imperfect, but perfectible; perfectible by an 
inborn power of progressing towards perfection. This 
power has not, however, been uniformly active. On 
the contrary, there are examples of man, apparently, for 
thousands of years continuing from generation to gener¬ 
ation, morally and intellectually without progress and 
without change. This, however, does not prove that 
there is anything fundamentally different in the nature 
of human beings who live from generation to generation 
without progress, since this non-progressive condition 
may be accounted for from circumstances. In truth, 
the whole human race has a common physical nature, 
and common intellectual and moral qualities, capable, 
under the benign and civilizing auspices of peace and 
science, of progressing towards ultimate moral and in¬ 
tellectual perfection ; and therefore climate affords no 
impediment, and even amongst the most barbarous 
and non-progressive nations, human nature presents no 
lasting impediment, to a great and glorious earthly ter- 



4 


inination of the whole human race. Be it remembered, 
that the intellectual powers of man have never yet 
been exercised on religion as a science ; or at all events 
not with the same perseverance and industry as upon hy¬ 
draulics, chemistry, anatomy, steam, &c. Religion has 
been hitherto most unjustifiably and most unwisely 
excluded from the domain of science, though compara¬ 
tive theology is as much a science as comparative 
anatomy. The consequence of this is, that the great 
majority of mankind are, as regards religion, trained 
from infancy under a peculiar, exclusive, and arbitrary 
code of imaginary laws, and very few indeed of the 
people of this earth, have the inclination or the courage 
to doubt the truth ot the religious doctrines, or the 
divine holiness of the public worship, of that religion in 
which they have been born and bred. 

It is from this cause that religious sentiments and 
observances are the most hereditary of all customs, 
and the most difficult to change; and consequently all 
religions endure for very many generations, and are very 
rarely superseded. It is nevertheless confidently 
alleged, that man is capable of being scientifically 
trained in religion, and that no perfect civilization will 
ever be obtained without such training, since such 
training is essential to the development in human 
nature, of the highest faculty for good of which it is 
capable. 

Man has, by nature, a conscience for what is right 
and for what is wrong, and a free-will power, limited 
in degree, to do right or to do wrong; Right and 


5 


^ rong being allowed to exist to enable man to exer. 
cise that power. Man is also a progressive creature, 
and has instinctively an idea that death does not ter¬ 
minate his existence. The interrogatory “ Where is 
he ?” or u Where is she ?” involuntarily emerging from 
the soul of survivors, when beholding the remains of 
those departed, proves this to be true ; and especially 
strong is this curiosity, if the deceased be either greatly 
loved or greatly hated. The familiar expressions, “She 
is now an angel,” “ He is gone to a better world,” 
“ He is now meeting with his deserts,” &c., &c. are 
also evidence of that instinctive idea, and constitute an 
involuntary recognition of one of the greatest of truths* 
Moreover, man, so soon as he has a capacity for 
causation, however minute it may be, instinctively 
supposes the existence of a being superior to himself, 
and whom he describes by some word denoting 
superiority or supremity, and whom he supplicates 
and worships through the medium of some material 
figure called an idol. 

The foregoing psychological properties of man con¬ 
stitute the natural germ of all religions, and acting in 
unison with his intellect, cause man to believe himself 
to be a responsible creature,—responsible to the Deity 
he worships; but instead of founding the laws of his God 
on scientific facts, (as for example, that God cannot 
grant material aid in answer to prayer without specially 
interfering with the operations of his own physical laws,) 
man fabricates from his imagination, the nature of his 
God, and of his God’s laws, and he invents and observes 


6 


public religious ceremonies corresponding thereto* 
From this cause religion varies in its development, as > 
the following table, which represents pretty correctly 
the progress in religion from the lowest to the highest 
degree of religious civilization, abundantly proves:— 


GRADE OP 
CIVILIZATION. 
Barbarous. 


Tri-partite, or 
semi - barbar¬ 
ous. 


NATURE OF 
RELIGION. 

If any, it is 
Fetich. 


Worship of a 
spirit with 
idols. 


HOW IT IS 
EXHIBITED. 

The Deification 
of matter, wor¬ 
ship of stones, 
sticks, ram’s 
heads, &c. 

Ditto, with hu¬ 
man sacrifices 


EXAMPLES. 

West coast of 
Africa, &c. 


West coast of 
Africa, Mexico 
&c. 


Uni-partite -bar- Ditto, 
barous. 


Civilized but not Idol worship, 
scientific, with 
idol worship. 


Worship of birds 
snakes, and 
beasts, and of 
images half 
man, half 
beast, &c. 

Representation 
of the Deity, 
in the form of 
man, that is 
Anthropomor¬ 
phic religion. 


Ancient religion- 
of Mesopota¬ 
mia, of Egypt 
& Asia, except 
C*nfucians. 

The Ancient Pa. 
gan Religions 
of Greece and 
Rome. The 
Mariolatryand 
Christolatry of 
Papal Christi- 
anity. 


Civilized but not 
scientific, with¬ 
out idol wor¬ 
ship. 

Civilized and 
Scientific. 


Fire — worship. 
Miraculous— 
Monotheism, 
and Trinita¬ 
rian Christi¬ 
anity. 

No idols 


Anthropopathic 
religion; that 
is, imputing 
to God human 
passions. 

Belief in an in¬ 
visible infinite 
self - existing 
Deity, perfect 
in goodness, 
wisdom and 
power,without 
any passion, 
save love, and 
without any 
image or com- 
petitor. 


Parsees, Jews, 
Mahomedans, 
and Christians 


The Scientific 
Theologian of 
theNineteenth 
century. 


Though different religions have different creeds, and 
different public ceremonies, yet all religions have 


certain common fundamental principles, which produce 


7 


in all or many religions the same or analogous facts. 
A few of these examples may be here adduced : — 

In all ages and in every part both of the old, and of 
Human Sa- new world, human sacrifices have formed 
onfice. a p ar t 0 f ^he re iigi ous observances of man, 
when first emerging from a barbarous condition. Death 
presents itself to the barbarian in every form, and hence 
he begins to ponder upon it. Not being intellectually 
capable of perceiving the wisdom of God manifested by 
conferring on animals a temporary existence, and on 
man a temporary and a tentative or probationary exist¬ 
ence, the savage concludes that God loves death and 
sanguinary actions for their own sake. Hence human 
sacrifices to appease or gratify the passions of his God. 
Let us not be too sure that one of our own most 
familiar Christian doctrines does not find its root in 
the same soil. 

In Massacres the European and Asiatic religions 
Massacres. are alike in operation; for example, in the six¬ 
teenth century there was a terrible massacre 
on account of religious differences of Mahomedans by 
Mahomedans and of Christians by Christians.(«) 


(a) There was an extraordinary analogy beteen these two furious out- 
bursts of human malignity. Both arose from what is called “Schism.” The 
Mahomedan Sunnites acknowledge,—the Mahomedan Schiis—repudi. 
ate the inspiration of the three immediate successors of Mahomed the 
prophet. This schism had distracted the Ottoman world from the earliest 
times. Selim the First, a Sunnite, organised a system of secret polio© 
throughout his dominions, and obtained a list of all the Mahomedans 
known or suspected to be Schiis—the number amounted to about seventy 
thousand. This police he secretly distributed throughout the empire in 
each city j when he suddenly sent them forth as messengers of death, and 
forty thousand Schiis were slain. This occurred between 1512 and 1520. 
The immediate cause of the massacre of the Huguenots arose from a refusal 
of French Protestant nobility to attend mass ; but its real cause was long 
cherished religious malignity. That massacre also was planned and continued 
for three days, and many thousands of men, women, and children perished. 
It began on the 24th August, 1572, at two o’clock on a Sunday morning. 



8 


Pilgrimages are common alike to the Jews, the 
Pilgrimages. Christians, the Mahomedans, the Brahminists 
and the Buddhists. 

Every known religion except that of Confucius, is 
Miracles, founded on alleged supernatural acts called 
miracles. 


Almost every known religion recognises worship 
)ls in the presence of idols. The material cross 
of Christian worship is an idol. 


Every religion with a literature has its Bible or 
a sacred book. There are twelve books 

Bibles or Sa¬ 
cred Books. belonging to different religions, regarded as 

sacred; as follows— 


The Tibetans have two sacred books called j an( * 

Kangur consists of 188 volumes—Tangur of 225 volumes. 

The Hebrews have one - - - The Talmud 


The Parsees 
The Confucians 
The Taotists 
The Brahmins 
The Buddhists 
The Jains 
The Sikhs 
The Mahomedans 
Christians 


The Zendavesta 
Ly King. 
Ta-o-te-King. 
The Vedas. 

The Tripitika. 
Sutras. 

Grant ii. 

The Koran. 

Tiie Bible. 


The Christian believes in the incarnation of God, 

Incarnation^ 11 a vir g in born child. The Buddhist 
believes the same. (£) 


The name of the Christian’s Man-God is Christ, or 

t ( b ) Milman’s History of Christianity, vol. i., p. 90, but this seems doubt, 
ful, «ee Edinburgh Review, 1862, p. 400, and Sir R. Alcock’s Japan, vol. 
I.* p. 376. 




“The Anointed,” that of the Buddhist “ Buddha,” qv 
“ The Enlightened;” and each incarnation came, it ip 
believed by their followers, into the world, to enlighten 
mankind and show the way to the soul’s health. Of 
Christ it is alleged that away from his native place he 
performed many miracles; of Buddha, that after twelve 
years’ absence from his father, he performed many 
miracles. The Druses’ last incarnation of the Deity was 
in Hakim Biamr Allah, who, a.d. 1033, disappeared, 
but who is to return to govern the world. The natives 
of Dahomey believe the Deity to be incarnated in the 
leopard. The Grand Llama is regarded as the incarna¬ 
tion of God;* Lankiumas the incarnation of Reason.f 

The Japanese believe Amida, a subordinate deity, to 
Mediators. ^he mediator between God and man. 

Amida is worshipped, and, singularly enough, 
one ceremony consists of the words “ Amida, Amida, 
Amida,” analogous to the “ Holy, Holy, Holy,” of the 
Cherubim and Seraphim of the Christians, who believe 
Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and the Mediator. 
Mithras is the spiritual Mediator of the Persian religion 
between good and evil.M 

When describing public religious worship in Japan, 
Vestments Sir Rutherford Alcock observes, vol. i., p. 
4c * 376, in effect,—“The altars, the tapers, the 

• 2 Hue, Le Christianisme en Chine, 299. f 2 Williams’ China, p. 246. 

(c) Since this manuscript was prepared the author has had a very inter* 
esting conversation with Mr. Manockjee Cursetjee, the well-known Parse©, 
(see the Times, 29th May, 1866), and he stated that this is not a correct 
representation of the doctrines of Zoroaster. He alleged that the Parsees 
believe that good and evil both proceed from God, and are agents used by 
him for the purpose of preparing mankind for a destination necessarily 
good, but which God does not choose to disclose to man in his present life. 



10 


incense, the very costumes, and the gestures of the 
priests were in so many striking particulars, so like to 
those of the Greek and Roman churches, as to consti¬ 
tute a resemblance too close to have been fortuitous. ,, 
The Crozier, the use of Beads, Saints’ Worship, &c. are 
amongst the customs of the Llamas. i d ) 

The Talmud.— The Decalogue was delivered to 
The inspira- Moses by God, (Jehovah) at the top of a 
mountain. The remainder consists of com¬ 
munications made by Jehovah to penmen, 
called prophets. 

The Zendavesta. —Delivered by God (Ormuzd) 
himself, to Zoroaster, at the top of a mountain. 

The Vedas. —Words spoken from the mouth of 
God (Brahm) himself, and which denote Truth. 

The Koran. —Written before God (Allah) himself, 
with a pen of light, and revealed to Mahomed by the 
angel Gabriel, who also confirmed the Bible, or at least 
the Syrian or Arabian manuscripts relating to the 
Hebrews and Christ, and thus recognised the prophets 
and Christ as one of them. 

The Bible. —Written under the inspiration of the 
Holy Ghost, one of the three persons composing the 
Trinity of the Christians. 

Every religion recognises the doctrine of exclusive 
The doctrine salvation, hence the persecutions for religious 
saivation S . 1Ve differences, of which Asia and Europe alike 
afford abundant examples. 


(cO 2 Hue, Le Christianisme en Chine, p. 17,18. 2 Williams* China, p. 257 



11 


If in addition to these remarkable facts, it is 
borne in mind that the great majority of all religions, 
whether recorded or unrecorded, whether of civilised 
or of savage nations, consist of belief in one Infinite 
Autocrat, working on mankind through the instrument 
of a subordinate polytheistic system, (of which the 
Hindoo religion, which recognises Brahm the Supreme 
and his subordinate Tritheistic ministers, Bramha the 
creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Siva the destroyer, 
is the most apt illustration,) and that all known re¬ 
ligions, not excepting that of Confucius, abound in 
wonder-stories, supernatural actions, and conjectural, 
that is imaginary and metaphysical doctrines, the 
general nature of religion as a psychological produc¬ 
tion will be pretty well understood. These wonderful 
analogies in relation to the worship of The Supreme 
Being, prove beyond all doubt, not only that every 
religion springs from the same psychological law, but 
that when religion manifests itself by private or public 
worship, it is a reflex of the moral and intellectual con¬ 
dition of the worshipper. So certain is this law, that 
the intellectual condition of any tribe or nation being 
given, the scientific theologian can specify the nature 
of their religion. On these interesting religious facts, 
the scientific theologian sits in judgment, and en¬ 
deavours to deduce from them some great and univer¬ 
sal truth. The result arrived at consists of three in¬ 
controvertible propositions of fact, viz.— 

First. That all religions have a common origin. 

Secondly. That all religions are constituted of two 


12 


elements, viz.—a creed and a worship; the former 
being metaphysical, the other physical. 

Thirdly. That the development of religion varies with 
the psychological condition of the worshipper; and 
as the mind of man in a highly cultivated condition is 
more likely to arrive at truth than when in a barbarous 
condition, it follows that the more highly human society 
is civilised, the more highly religion must be civilised, 
because the more truthful. 

Another most important truth is deducible from 
the foregoing analogies, viz.—that every attempt of 
those wandering assailants and expostulators called 
missionaries, whose religion is proveable, by a sacred 
book, and whose doctrines are metaphysical, to make 
proselytes of other religionists, whose religion is also 
prove&ble by a sacred book, and whose doctrines are 
also metaphysical, must fail, though religious books for 
the purpose be circulated by tens of thousands. And 
why ? because the expostulators, when endeavouring 
to prove that Christianity is the only true revelation, 
must offend both the faith and reason of the listener; 
his faith, because he alleges that the Christian miracles 
are superior to those on which the intended convert 
relies; and his reason, because cruelty and injustice 
are imputed to God ; cruelty for allowing so many 
millions of his children from generation to generation 
to be born and to live under a false religion; injustice 
because it imputes to the Almighty religious favour¬ 
itism. Moreover, when tested by its results on the 
social welfare of mankind, in the so called civilised 


13 


quarters of the earth, as proved by a long succession 
of ages, Christianity, as it has been developed , (what¬ 
ever consolation it may have afforded in solitude, 
whatever benevolent actions it may have stimulated) 
has actually impeded the progress of science and 
civilisation. («) It is only amongst unlettered 
religions, that Christianity has caused any pro¬ 
gress in civilisation, at all corresponding to the efforts 
for conversion to its faith. Amongst unlettered tribes 
it has had considerable success, of which Polynesia 
and New Zealand are examples. 

THE GOD OF SCIENCE. 

Every event has its cause, and hence, by a very 
simple process of the intellect, it, when cultivated, is 
compelled to believe in a perpetual self-existing Origin 
and ever-continuing Cause of all events. Hence created 
life must proceed originally from uncreated life; created 
intellect from uncreated intellect; created matter from 
uncreated matter, but before it can be alleged that 
created Evil proceeds originally from uncreated Evil, 
it must be proved that evil is self-existing and in¬ 
destructible. If evil be self-existing, then the infinit e 
universe has no omnipotent God, but is governed by 
two forces always contending with each other. If 

(e) The social condition of mankind under Christian religious institutions 
has not been productive, taking one Christian country with another, of 
greater human progress or greater human happiness, than other religions 
possessing a literature. In truth, numerous and elaborate ceremonies, the 
most trivial superstitions, miracles innumerable, and cruelties unparalleled 
in history, have characterised for centuries the development of Christianity. 
In its earliest development it did, however, cause bondage in the Eoman 
Empire to disappear. Yet, strangely enough, in the eighteenth century of 
its Era, Slavery and the Slave trade became lawful institutions in most if 
not all the Christian States of Europe, 




14 


such were the fact, all laws, including those of science, 
would partake of the imperfection of their origin. The 
universe would be imperfect; its laws imperfect. It 
happens, however, that the laws revealed to the human 
intellect by science are so absolutely perfect, that the 
operation of them may be calculated upon with the 
most unerring certainty; but as perfect laws must 
proceed from a perfect origin, it follows that there 
must be a supreme, self-existing, perfect being; and 
the scientific theologian therefore believes that being 
to be infinitely perfect in every respect. Nevertheless 
he cannot deny that mankind suffer evil. He there¬ 
fore proceeds to enquire into the nature of evil. 

EVIL.-WHAT IT IS. 

Evil is Pain, physical or moral, and is positive in 
its nature. Physical pain is caused by disease or 
accident. Moral pain is anguish of the soul. The 
Deity designedly causes, by the invariable operation of 
his physical laws, at intervals, unascertainable by man, 
physical pain; for example, disease, pestilence and 
famine; his laws being so created as at times to pro¬ 
duce those evils, since they would not otherwise 
operate either as an incentive to mankind, or as indica¬ 
tions of the power and presence of The Almighty. 
Moral pain is invariably created by man only, one 
of the severest of moral pains being that of undeserved 
reproach; another, remorse; the former pain undeser¬ 
ved, the latter deserved. Pain, whether physical or 
moral, whether deserved or undeserved, is and is 
intended to be most severe, and frequently it is so 


15 


unbearable as to cause a voluntary death; but before 
we can attribute evil to any agency other than God 
himself, we must ascertain whether its existence is not 
consistent with those attributes of perfection, proved 
by His general laws to belong to God, and whilst 
doing so we must remember that there is also Good. 

GOOD.-WHAT IT IS. 

Good is not a mere absence of pain. It is, like evil, 
positive. The greatest good, any human being can 
enjoy, is health of body and soul. Now there are 
certain actions which cause Good, that is Happiness; 
and there are certain actions that cause the reverse of 
Good, that is Misery or Evil. Good and Evil are 
therefore facts; but, since man has a knowledge of the 
certainty of Death, had not he also an instinctive 
expectation of a life after Death, the certainty that 
good would end with this life, would cause pain—moral 
pain; because it would present a condition of things 
inconsistent with God’s perfect attributes; but as man 
has that instinctive perception and unquestionably en¬ 
joys great happiness from doing good, he, if good, feels 
sure that the future life that is to be granted to him 
cannot be otherwise than good. On the other hand, did 
the man who does evil, believe that this life ends with 
death, he would have no inducement to discontinue his 
evil course, and death, from the misery evil occasions, 
would be to him Good. Having thus ascertained what 
evil and good are, the next question is, 


16 


WHY EYIL AND GOOD EXIST ? 

Without them man could not be constituted as he 
is, a perfectible being. Man would have no sense of 
human misery, and therefore no longing after a better 
existence. Good and Evil exist, in short, for no other 
purpose than to place every human being in a state of 
proba tion for another life, the fact of evil, and the fact of 
death, always reminding mankind that this existence 
is imperfect and temporary, the fact of good and the 
hope of immortality exciting the belief that good in 
this life will be augmented in the next. If these facts 
were not strongly enforced on man’s attention, he 
would never regard a future life at all—he could not 
be in a state of probation—he could have no free-will; 
but the co-existence of free-will and of good and of 
evil, are the instruments by which God compels every 
human being himself, according to the circumstances 
in which he is placed, to train his soul for a higher or 
a lower existence, for a higher or a lower organisation 
in a future life. Jf it be said that this provision can 
have no operation on babes or savages; the scientific 
theologian alleges, that this life is a transitory existence, 
one, it may be, of many that are past, and of many yet 
to come, and that it is in some way and to some extent 
inseparable from those existences, of which it forms one; 
and that it is in some way and to some extent opera¬ 
tive with reference to them. By this wondrous con¬ 
trivance, viz, the co-existence of free-will and of good and 
of evil, man becomes the originator of his own spiritual 
good, and the originator of his own spiritual evil. 



17 


SATAN. 

The belief in Demoniacal Agency is always a token 
of a barbarous condition of the human mind, since 
savages invariably entertain it ; but The Scientific 
Theologian having reconciled the existence of Evil with 
the unerring Wisdom and Love of God, boldly asserts 
1 that no such agency exists. The story of Satan tempt¬ 
ing Christ, narrated in the fourth chapter of St. 
Matthew’s Gospel, instead of having been regarded as 
it ought to have been, as an allegorical illustration of 
the great moral and religious principle, viz: that 
neither the cravings of hunger, nor worldly ambition, 
ought 1o lead man’s soul from righteousness, and that 
it is at his own peril if man disregards the laws of 
nature; has unfortunately for mankind, been regarded 
not as a parable, but as literally true; and from this 
cause, a recognition of the real existence of numberless 
invisible demons perpetually fluttering in silence 
around every person with the privilege of tempting him 
or her to sin, and so to bring their souls into an eternal 
hell, has been a part of the religion of Christendom for 
seventeen centuries, and still is credited by very many 
persons who will soon know better. Scientific Theo- 
logy, having by induction arrived at the knowledge of 
God’s true nature, viz . that He must be self-existing 
by his own inherent incomprehensible power, and 
that He is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, all 
good and all wise, unconditionally rejects the idea of the 
existence anywhere, of any enemy rival, competitor, 


18 


or antagonist to the Almighty ; or that moral evil, as a 
thing originating from, or independent of, Almighty 
God, has or can have any existence whatever. As ob¬ 
served under the Article on Evil—God inflicts physical 
evil wilfully, under the name of Pain, but, only out 
of love for man, and for his immortal good. 

CHRIST. 

Jesus Christ being the originator of a religion recog¬ 
nized by about a third of the human race, every obser¬ 
vation connected with him ought to be the result of the 
most solemn consideration, and the most profound 
study. An attempt has been made to prove Christ 
to have been a myth. It has failed—Christ is not 
the creation of a poet. He lived, thought, spoke, and 
acted. About three hundred millions of human 
beings profess to believe, and the great majority of them 
do believe Christ to have been The Creator and The 
Created, that is both God and Man. It is not alleged 
as against the conscience of others, that Christ did not 
in his person unite both The Divine and Human 
Nature, but it is certain that it is only in his human 
capacity, that his character can be reviewed ; for it is 
as Man and not as God, that we can follow him, observe 
him, and bring him under the range of the human 
intellect. As Man and not as God will Christ there¬ 
fore be now regarded. He was not omniscient, for he 
i s represented as increasing in wisdom, and as stating 
that he himself did not know all things ; (/) he was 

( f) “ And Jesus increased in wisdom.”—2 Luke, 52. ~ “ But of that day 
and hour knoweth no man, no, not the Angels of Heaven, but my Father 
only.”—24 Matthew, 36„ 



19 


capable of anger ; (,?) of vituperation. W He com¬ 
manded without any qualification, without any figura¬ 
tive signification, mutilation of any sinful member 
of the body; (* *) and even the abandonment of the most 
sacred and endearing ties of human nature, from those 
who had become or wished to become his disciples. (7) 
He recognised, unequivocally the doctrine of God 
abandoning his own omnipotence, for he pointed to 
human misery coexisting with God to all eternity, as 
being absolutely unchangeable and interminable, even 
by God Himself. (70 He makes himself the author of 
the most terrible and cruel of domestic tragedies. (0 
He denies man’s freewill, O) and takes it away, and 
alleges that the Almighty takes advantage of his own 
wrong. ( n ) 

Now, in the exercise of that liberty of thought and 
of conscience, every Iree person is willing to acknow¬ 
ledge in others, it may be alleged and believed that 
the principles thus recognised by Jesus Christ are not 
divine in origin, and if not, they are to be attributed 


(g) “ And when he had looked around about them with anger .”—3 
Mark, 5. 

( h ) “ Ye serpents : Ye generation of vipers.”—23 Matthew, 33. 

(*) “ If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off”—18 Matthew 8. 

(?) “ Let the dead bury their dead.”—8 Matthew, 22. “ Lf any man 

come to me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and 
brethren and sisters, he cannot be my disciple.”—14 Luke, 26. 

(k') “It is better for thee to enter half into life, than having two feet to 
be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenohed.”—9 Mark, 43. 

( l) “ Think not that I am come to send peace on earth, I am come not 
to send peace but a sword, I am come to set a man at variance against his 
father.”—10 Matthew, 35. 

( m) “All things are delivered unto me of my Father.” “ Neither know- 
eth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will 
reveal him.”—11 Matthew, 27. 

(n) “For this people’s heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of 
hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest at any time they should see 
with their eyes and hear wish their ears, and should understand with their 
hearts, and should be converted.”— 13 Matthew, 15. 



20 


to the infirmities of his human nature. Of science, 
Christ knew nothing—of languages, nothing—of his¬ 
tory, save that of the Jews, nothing. He was, how¬ 
ever, learned in all the literature that was accessible to 
him, and which consisted exclusively of Hebrew 
manuscripts. As to his character, that must be ascer¬ 
tained by his words and his deeds. For this purpose 
it is necessary to ascertain first, what were the true 
words spoken by him. Now, only four reliable 
biographies of Christ have been transmitted to u«, but 
in the early ages of Christianity there were many 
more, (o) Our materials are therefore limited, and are 
by no means superabundant. 

The three first Gospels have a common origin :— 
this is apparent from the passages common to them all, 
and from their structure. In truth, therefore, there 
are only two original biographies, viz., the manuscript 
or information from which the three first gospels were 
taken, and the fourth Gospel, viz*, that according to 
St. John. The addenda found in the three first Gospels, 
that is to say, such parts as are not found in all of 
them, must be ascribed to other sources than the 
writer of the original biography. It is only by com¬ 
parison that the true words of Christ can be ascertained. 
The writer of the fourth Gospel, also wrote three 
Epistles, and on comparing those Epistles with the 
fourth Gospel, it is proved that, (whether the ideas at¬ 
tributed to Christ in the fourth Gospel originated from 
him or not,) the language is that of the Biographer* 


(o) 1 Luke, 1. 



21 


The true words of Christ are therefore found in the 
three first Gospels, except where if at all, St. John 
represents the same language as is there found. What 
then is the result ? The result is, that the character 
of Christ must he taken from his true words. I have 
already given several examples of them, and those do 
not convey a very exalted idea either of his intellect, or 
his religious civilization. We shall however, have to 
regard him presently in a very different light. The 
words attributed to Christ by St. John, are, for the 
most part, those of a Metaphysician, except so far as 
they are in companionship with Christ’s miracles. 
Again and again Christ is made in St. John’s Gospel 
to talk metaphysics, of whioh his conference with 
Nicodemus, is the first example. The following ex¬ 
tracts are other examples—amongst many, u Verily, 
Verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was I am,” 
8. St. John, v. 58. “ The Father loveth the Son, and 

hath given all things into his hand,” 3. St. John, v. 35. 
(6 1, and my Father are one,” 10. St John, v. 30. 
&c., &c., 

The Metaphysical relations alleged by Christ to 
have existed between himself and God, are not capable 
of being proved, or disproved, because there is nothing 
on which issue can be taken. They are only meta¬ 
physical allegations. If a man were to say, “lam the 
Son of God,” it would be raising a metaphysical 
question. Simon Magus, like Christ, resorted to this 
Egotistical assertion, “ I am the Word, The Perfection, 


22 


The Paraclete,” said he.^) If such a person were to 
say, If you will not believe me, believe my works, and 
such works were restoring life to the dead, sight to 
the blind, &c., it is sufficient to observe, that if such 
works were really done, no human being in his senses 
could doubt the supernatural gifts of the miracle- 
worker, and would believe anything he would say. 
Of course, if it be capable of unquestionable proof 
that the Creator and the Created were united in the 
person of Christ, whatever fell from him must be 
received with the same unresisting implicit faith, 
as that which causes the Hindoo to suppose that he 
is sending his soul to God, when he prostrates him¬ 
self under the wheels of Juggernaut; but it was not 
Christ’s intention that people should become beside 
themselves when listening to him, for he frequently 
appeals to the reason of his auditors, and especially 
in his Sermon on the Mount. As what is legendary 
proves nothing, the only real evidence of Christ’s 
supernatural origin consists of his Miracles. If they 
are proved, His Divinity is proved. With regard 
to Miracles, the human intellect is obliged to adopt 
one of four courses, all Miracles being ejusdem gene • 
ris. First, in exercise of its Free will, it may de~ 
cline to form any opinion as to the truth or 
untruth of Miracles, regarding the narrative as an 
allegation which may or may not be true, and so 
suspending its conviction either one way or the 
other. Secondly,—the intellect may regard the 


( p) Milman’s History cf the Church, 1 vol. p. 9. 



23 


Miracles alleged to have been wrought in support of 
any one or more religions as true, and all other 
Miracles as untrue; for example, the Jew regards the 
Old Testament Miracles as true, and those of the 
New Testament as untrue. The Bible Christian 
believes the Miracles of both Testaments to be true. 
Thirdly,—the intellect may believe all Miracles to 
be true ; Fourthly,—it may believe all Miracles to 
be untrue. Bearing the foregoing proposition in our 
minds, let the following question—viz., “ Is it, or is 
it not a fact that Christ possessed and exercised 
supernatural powers ?” be considered seriously and 
calmly. About two hundred and sixty millions of 
human beings, who regard Christians as Infidels, and 
call them “ Christian Fogs,” believe that the Koran 
was written before the Throne of God, with a pen of 
light, of which a copy was brought down to earth by 
the Angel Gabriel, and revealed to Mahommed. That 
was a miracle, if true. 

About four hundred millions of human beings be¬ 
lieve that Buddha was an incarnation of the Deity, 
and Virgin-born, and that he, when under inspiration, 
revealed the will of God. That was a Miracle if true, 
and is the brother Miracle of Christianity. 

About one hundred and thirty millions of human 
beings believe that the Vedas, or the Books of Truth, 
were dictated by the Supreme Being, through his 
divine, but not incarnated minister, Brahma. That 
was a Miracle, if true. 

About three hundred millions of human beings, 


24 


(who regard all the rest of mankind as Turks, Infidels, 
or Heretics;) believe that Christ was Virgin-born, The 
God Incarnate. That was a Miracle, if true. But 
the Scientific Theologian asks upon what truthful 
principles, the Miracles advanced in support of one 
scheme of religion are to be received as true, and to 
be rejected as false as regards the other schemes, since 
in all, they are alleged to be supernatural inter¬ 
positions of The Almighty, and consequently proveable 
by the same evidence. Now, as already observed, 
every believer considers his own religion true, and 
that of others false. This is a psychological law, which 
invariably operates on uncivilized human nature; 
but it is also a psychological law that the human 
soul is capable of progressing towards greater and 
greater truths, and it then rejects ideas previously en¬ 
tertained, if discovered to be untrue. Now if Miracles 
be the natural advance towards truth, as induced 
by facts conceivable alike by all mankiud to be true, 
(as, for example, that two persons cannot stand on the 
same spot of ground,) are no longer necessary to prove 
that there is a self-existing Infinite Living God, All¬ 
good, All-wise, and Omnipotent, that the death of 
man on earth ca nnot be an end of his existence, that 
man from the co-existence of Good and of Evil, and 
of Free-will, is a responsible being, responsible to 
God, and that he carries that responsibility into a 
future life, where consistently with God’s works 
known to him, he will be raised or degraded in the 
scale of His vast Creation, accordingly as he exercises 


25 



that Free-will; and finally, that God can and does 
consistently with his own material laws, give spiritual 
aid to man in answer to his prayer, and makes him 
expiate his evil deeds by corresponding penalties here 
and hereafter; bearing in mind that no human being 
can deprive another of his soul, though he may of his 
earthly life;—then by the progress in religious civil¬ 
ization of the human intellect, without any super¬ 
natural interposition, without any violation of the 
laws of nature, without any violation of the laws of 
justice, without any imprisonment of God’s word to 
skins of beasts and book-shelves, without any wander¬ 
ing priests living on the credulity of their fellow- 
creatures, man arrives at true religion, viz. the most 
exalted relation in which he can on this earth stand 
towards the Originator and Creator and Preserver of 
his existence, and so Miracles become incredible. The 
nearest approach to this civilized religious condition, is 
that which was caused in China by the profound philo¬ 
sophic writings of Confucius, which inculcate the main 
principles of Scientific Theology. The religion of Con¬ 
fucius, if it can be so called, established by him, wa s 
very soon productive of peace, concord, industry, and 
progress, and unnumbered thousands of human beings 
for twenty-four or more centuries, down to the present 
age, owe their temporal prosperity and happiness to 
the sound religious philosophy of that good, great, 
and sagacious man; but his religion has not with* 
stood the advances of the material religion of Bud¬ 
dha, with its idols, and splendid temples, and cere- 


26 


monies. It was too ideal, too refined; but the 
chief cause of its failure was the recognition by the 
Confucians of the maxim, that the seasons may be 
propitiated. It attempted, moreover, to declare the 
privileges of departed spirits, and regarded The 
Almighty as capable of giving plentiful Harvests in 
answer to public prayer and worship, thus recog¬ 
nising, superstition, without the attractions of Bud¬ 
dhism, which appealed physically to the senses, and 
morally to the heart.; for not only was the public 
worship of Buddha very splendid, but his moral 
code was perfect, for he recognises amongst moral 
duties, parental care for children, submission to 
authority, gratitude and moderation in time of pros¬ 
perity, submission in time of trial, equanimity at all 
times ; and virtues unknown in any heathen system 
of morals, such as the duty of forgiving insults and 
not rewarding evil with evil. (?) 

I now come to consider the character of Christ 
in its most attractive and exalted aspect, viz. as 
Christ the Philotheanthropist, the Lover of God and of 
Man. In this point of view Christ’s character is 
almost altogether in accord with the highest and most 
scientific conceptions of God and of Man’s duty to 
Him ; but unfortunately its legitimate operation has 
been impeded, nay perverted, by elaborate sacer¬ 
dotal codes founded not on the pure and benevolent 
and loving religion of Christ, but upon the meta¬ 
physical ideas of its expounders; of Men, who received 


(g) Edinburgh Review, 1662. 





27 


as facts, tales of wonder invented as righteous frauds 
to propagate a religion which in its fundamental 
principles has been always, and is to this day worthy 
of all acceptation. As proof of the scientific theology 
of Jesus Christ, we may observe—that nowhere does 
he recognise the monstrous injustice of vicarious 
punishment;—no where does he insist on an abandon¬ 
ment of the reasoning faculties, when describing God— 
nowhere does he deny the efficacy of good works 
before God, whether the benefactor be Jew or Gentile, 
or of any other nation. His Moral code, with the ex¬ 
ceptions I have referred to, was moreover entirely in 
accord with Scientific Theology, of which fact may be 
adduced the following examples of its contents, viz.— 


Humility 14 v S. Luke, c. 

8. 5 c. 

Matthew, 

v. 2. 

Righteousness : : 

- 5 

ditto 

6. 

Mercy - 

5 

ditto 

7. 

Purity - 

5 

ditto 

8. 

Peace - 

5 

ditto 

9. 

Good-works ... 

- 

ditto 

16. 

Usefulness - 

15 

Luke, 

14. 

Truths without Oaths 

.5 

Matthew, 

37. 

Smbmission to Evil 

- 5 

ditto 

39. 

Generosity - 

5 

ditto 

42. 

Love of Enemies 

5 

ditto 

44. 

Secret Charity 

- 6 

ditto 

1. 

Secret Prayer to God 

6 

ditto 

6. 

Forgiveness of Injuries 

6 

ditto 

12. 

Cleanliness - 

6 

ditto 

17, 

Godliness * - : 

6 

ditto 

33. 

Monogamy ... 

19 

ditto 

4. 

Filial Duty - 

19 

ditto 

19. 

Belief in one God, as 

11 

ditto 

25. 


28 


Being Omnipotent - 19 St. Matthew, 26. 

“ Good - - 19 ditto 17. 

“ Merciful - - 6 St. Luke, 36. 

“Just - 5 St. Matthew, 45. 

“ Gracious 6 ditto 4. 

and - - - - 11 St. Luke, 13. 

“ Perfect - - 5 St. Matthew, 48. 

Lastly, the duties of man to God enjoined by Jesus 
Christ, are expresssed in language which for truth, 
strength, and brevity, has never or rarely been equalled. 

“ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
“ with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and thy neigh- 
“ hour as thyself. “This do and thou shalt live.”—10 St* 
Luke , v. 27, 28. 

Moreover, Christ recognised the immortality of the 
soul, under the name of eternal life, but he nowhere 
defines the occupations of that eternal life, though if 
he were omniscient he knew what they would be* 
Science can, alone, on any solid grounds, realize an 
idea of them, and of science Christ was ignorant; but 
the utmost the Scientific Theologian ventures to say, 
as regards futurity, is, that subject to God’s omnipo¬ 
tence, that future life will be free from the operation of 
time, and that its happiness will be analogous to the 
happiness man is capable of insuring to himself on 
earth; but free from alloy, and enlarged to a degree 
consistent with the benevolence of an Almighty Being. 

Finally, it is sufficient to say that Christ was the 
impersonation of piety, benevolence, humility, and 
courage, and that the religion he taught as a philo- 
theanthropist, entitles him to the appellation of The 


29 


Saviour of Mankind ; since if it be followed in deeds 
and not in metaphysics, it will be found to bring sal¬ 
vation to the human soul, but this remark has no ap¬ 
plication to the injunctions of Sacerdotal Christianity. 

SACERDOTAL CHRISTIANITY. 

True Christianity can have proceeded from the 
mouth only of Jesus. Without his words, his alleged 
actions prove nothing beyond the possession of super¬ 
natural powers. Now, if the words that fell from 
Christ were sufficient to establish true religion, mi¬ 
raculous action was unnecessary. If the words were 
not sufficient, then Jesus did not complete his mission; 
but it is proved by the foregoing article, entitled 
“ Christ,” that Christ’s words as a philoth eanthropist 
alone were amply sufficient to establish true religion, 
that such is their operation on the soul’s health, that 
they may well, indeed, be regarded figuratively, as 
medicinally curing man’s soul of blindness, deafness, 
lameness, and disease, and even raising it out of the 
shadow of death. By Sacerdotal Christianity is 
meant, not that Christianity which came from the 
mouth of the Saviour, but those elaborate metaphysical 
and perplexing phases of Christian doctrine, beginning 
with the first expounders of this sublime faith, and 
continuing thenceforward down to the present day, of 
which the doctrines of the Atonement and Predesti¬ 
nation are, perhaps, the most prominent examples. 

It is not extravagant to allege that an incalculable 
amount of human suffering would have been prevented 


30 


had Christianity been founded alone on the true words 
of Christ, had all the New Testament save the three 
first Gospels never been written. Ultimately these 
doctrinal questions, which have always obscured and 
well-nigh destroyed the true, bright, and holy religion 
enunciated by Christ himself, were reduced into creeds 
or codes, but for codified Christianity, Christ gave 
no authority whatever, and compared with the 
fountain whose sweet waters codified Christianity has 
appropriated, it is a liquid holding in solution a pre¬ 
ponderating quantity of the mud and rubbish of 
superstition. Nothing but expediency can justify 
codified Christianity. For centuries owing to in¬ 
cessant wars, mankind were incapable of induction, 
and the human mind consequently wasted its energies 
on purely metaphysical questions ; one of which ulti¬ 
mately divided Christianity in twain, viz. whether the 
third Person of the Trinity proceeded from The Father 
only or from The Father and The Son. These abstract 
metaphysical questions were however capable of ex¬ 
citing and did excite deeds of blood, cruelty, and 
wrong, so as to verify the prediction of Jesus that he 
came not to bring peace on earth but a sword, and it 
was desirable therefore that these doubts and their 
offspring should be cleared away or suppressed, by 
Creeds declared by Ecclesiastical Councils, and drilled 
into the minds of the young. Those days are happily 
passed away, and now there is nothing to justify the 
retention of metaphysical Christianity, nay, since these 
Codes inculcate the insufficiency of good deeds alone 


31 


for grace with The Supreme, it will be well for man¬ 
kind, when they are swept away entirely. The re¬ 
form of the Established Church of England and 
Ireland now so much required, should therefore aim 
at a far purer and more practical Christianity than 
can be expected from the retention of our Thirty-nine 
Articles, or the three Creeds, referred to by them 
two definitions, three Commandments, one Promise 
and one Admonition, being amply sufficient for all re¬ 
ligion. They are as follows, viz: 

1. God is a self-existing Life, Infinite, All-good,. 
All-wise, and Omnipotent, who regards and answers 
man’s spiritual prayers. 

2. Man is His only perfectible creature, so far as 
is known. 

3. Love God with all your soul. 

4. Love your fellow-creature as yourself. 

• 5. Pray to God for power to keep these command¬ 
ments. 

6. If ye so love and pray, and prove your Love by 
your deeds, your soul shall be perfected, and ye shall 
live and be exalted before God, in the scale of his 
Creation. 

7, If ye do not so love and pray, and do, ye shall 

live, and be degraded in that scale, below the beasts 
that perish. _ rj 

PROPHECY. 

Man has the faculty of arriving at particular truths 
by induction, founded on existing facts. The dis¬ 
covery of the revolution of the earth is an example. 
Subject to penetration by the exercise of that faculty, 


32 


Darkness immeasurable conceals from man the past 
and the future of any unearthly life, though each per¬ 
son may have gone through endless existences prior 
to his conception in the womb, and may go though 
endless future existences after the death of the body. 
Now, if it be right that futurity should be concealed 
from man, except so far as he can by induction dis¬ 
cover it, then it is wrong in any other way than by 
induction to disclose futurity to man. If it be wrong 
not to reveal futurity to man, then the concealment of 
futurity from man is wrong. Prophecy not founded 
on induction, claims a special power to reveal futurity 
independently of induction, and since God has con¬ 
cealed futurity from man, except so far as he can 
discover it by induction, it follows that unless such 
Prophecy be dictated by The Supreme Being, it is an 
impious attempt to violate the law by which the 
future is concealed; but if the Prophecy be dictated 
by the Supreme Being, it follows that the law of con’ 
cealment of the future was imperfect, since it required 
interposition. Those, therefore, who allege that re¬ 
vealed Prophecies, (that is Prophecies which have 
from time to time been, as alleged, made by special 
dictation from the Supreme), are credible, have four 
facts to establish, viz. First, the Justice of such Pro¬ 
phecies; Secondly, their Probability; Thirdly, their 
Necessity; Fourthly, their Truth. 

If it be necessary that any portion of mankind 
should, for the salvation of their souls, be specially 


33 


made acquainted with any future events, such neces¬ 
sity must exist equally for the whole of mankind. It 
would be, therefore, cruel and unjust for the Supreme 
Being to withhold the divine prophetic light from any 
of His creatures. If the laws of The Supreme Being 
created for man were perfect, any interposition with 
those laws by Prophecy or otherwise would be un¬ 
necessary, and it is highly improbable that imperfect 
laws should proceed from a perfect origin. Prophe¬ 
cies not founded on induction are therefore improba¬ 
ble. If, nevertheless, evidence to prove the truth of 
such prophecies be admissible, those alleging the truth 
of them must adduce that evidence. They must begin 
by proving a special inspiration as a fact, but this is 
obviously a question on which no issue can be taken. 
If I allege I am inspired, that does not prove 
me to be inspired. The believers in Prophecy must 
moreover prove, that the prophecy is not founded on 
induction—when, for example, physical suffering is 
predicted for unrighteousness, as coming from the 
wrath of The Supreme, since unrighteousness by the 
law of nature always causes such suffering, the ful¬ 
filment of prophecy must be attributed to unrighteous¬ 
ness, and not to divine wrath. In other words, if any 
event can be predicted or accounted for, from natural 
causes, it is unnecessary and improper to resort to 
supernatural causes. The union of the Creator with 
the Created is the great prophecy which Christians 
allege and which Hebrews deny was fulfilled in the 
Yirgin-born child Jesus, “ The Blasphemer,” as the 


34 


Hebrews called him, a The Anointed,” as the Christ¬ 
ians called him. Now this prophecy is directly at 
variance with the two first facts, which the believers 
in prophecy have to establish. 

It was unjust to confine a knowledge of The 
Almighty when incarnated, to one portion of the hu¬ 
man family, and it was therefore improbable; and 
those who allege its necessity, can do so only by 
proving that the natural laws of man are, without any 
special interference, insufficient to prove the existence 
and nature of God, and man’s relations and duties to 
Him, and that such special interference rendered them 
sufficient. That is a proposition which facts absolutely 
contradict, as these pages show. 

There is, therefore, now only one remaining fact of 
the four, viz. The Truth of this great Prophecy. Is 
it or is it not true that a Virgin was pregnant ? Super¬ 
natural powers in the child clearly do not prove the 
fact, since supernatural powers may be given to a 
natural born man; neither do legendary allegations 
(whether consistent with each other, or inconsistent , as 
are the narratives of St. Matthew and St. Luke) con¬ 
cerning the early biography of Jesus Christ. The 
fact must be proved otherwise than by legends. 
Where is the evidence ? If not forthcoming, then the 
prophecy is not proved. It is confidently alleged that 
no prophecy that can be adduced answers the four 
requirements necessary to establish the truth of Pro¬ 
phecies, viz. their justice their probability, their neces- 


35 


sity, their truth. What then are Prophecies ? They 
are only exhibitions of a psychological law, the law of 
the imagination, which by nature is absolutely without 
limit. It is no more wonderful for a man to suppose 
himself capable of foretelling the future, than to be 
under any of the numberless delusions of the mind 
to which mankind are subject; but what is presented 
to the intellect by a belief in the fulfilment of the 
great and superlative prophecy above alluded to? If 
it be true, mankind must believe Jesus Christ to have 
been at one at the same time, omniscient and ignorant, 
mortal and immortal, subject to death yet having 
power over it, and lastly both temporal and eternal. 
Moreover, we must believe that The Supreme and 
Infinite Being called God, was concentrated in the 
form of a man, if so, he was represented by lineaments, 
and if so, His Infinity was no more. 

THE APOSTLES. 

Revealed Religion being credible, if at all, only in 
so far as it is consistent -with that perfect justice the 
scientific theologian is compelled to attribute to the 
Deity, it follows that if there be any statement made 
by the Apostles at variance with that perfect justice, 
it cannot be regarded as worthy of any acceptation. 
Now, St. Paul, who unquestionably wrote the Epistle 
to the Romans states, c. ix., v. 17, 21, 22, “Even for 
“ this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might 
“show my power in thee.” “Hath not the potter 
“ power over the clay of the same lump, to make one 


36 


“vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour.” 
“ What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make 
“ his power known, endured with much long suffer¬ 
ing the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?” St. 
Paul thus describes God as making men fitted for des¬ 
truction, and then showing wrath against them because 
they are fitted for destruction. St. Peter, n. Epistle, 
c ii., v. 5, alleges that there was a deluge which was 
brought in to destroy the ungodly, and he proves that 
it was ineffective for that purpose; because he, at v. 6, 
alludes to Sodom and Gomorrah, alleging that God 
turned them into ashes as an example to the ungodly. 
Now science not only proves that there never could 
have been a deluge, but it alleges that if it were neces¬ 
sary to destroy the ungodly by way of example, God 
ought not to have left himself under the necessity of 
repeating His warning. He ought to have put an end 
to ungodliness altogether, which He has never done, 
though He has always had the power to end it. Jude, 
V. 9, represents Michael the Archangel as contending 
with the devil. Scientific Theology cannot recognise 
the existence of a devil. In the Book of the Revela¬ 
tion (so called) to St. John, c. ix., v. 2, the opening 
of a bottomless pit is mentioned, which is a direct ap¬ 
peal to superstition, for no such thing can exist. The 
tortures assigned by that Book, (see c. 9,) to fornica¬ 
tors, idol-worshippers, murderers, sorcerers, &c., are 
frightfully droll and arbitrary. They shall seek 
death and shall not find it, and shall desire to ‘die 
and death shall flee from them; and they are to be 


37 


tormented five months with a strange kind of Scorpion, 
viz. Scorpions shaped like horses, with lion’s teeth, and 
having wings and tails, or caudal stings; and then one 
third of the fornicators, murderers, felons &c., are to be 
killed and the rest preserved. St. John, i. Epistle, c. 
hi., v. 8, c. v., v. 19, recognises the existence of a 
devil, and, has the temerity to allege that he (St. John) 
and his are alone of God, and that the whole world be¬ 
sides lieth under sin. St. John, moreover, in his Gos¬ 
pel, c. xii., v.39,40, makes God take advantage of his 
own wrong, “ They eould not believe, because God 
u hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts.” 
Thus all these Apostles after Christ’s death, recognised 
in the Deity principles of action opposed to perfect 
justice and perfect wisdom. It seems impossible to 
reconcile the truth of the following statements ; viz., in 
Galatians, c i., v. 17, St. Paul alleges that immediately 
after his conversion he went into Arabia, and then 
abode three years at Damascus, and then went to 
Jerusalem, where he saw only Peter and James, the 
Lord’s brother, and remained there fifteen days; but at 
Acts ix., v. 27, 28, he is represented after leaving 
Damascus, as being with the apostles, including 
Barnabas, and was with them coming in and going 
out of Jerusalem. 


DEATH. 

There is no such thing as death, according to the 
ordinary signification of that word. Death is the 
separation of something from the body, which whilst 


38 


it is united to the body, prevents that body decaying 
and becoming a substance well known to Chemists. 
Life is, therefore, a superior power to matter, and 
must have proceeded from the Infinite Life of God. 
It follows, therefore, that Death is an act of God, by 
which He takes a Life from matter, and that, thereupon, 
He either mixes it with Himself, as one drop of water 
mixes with another, or keeps it in an individual con¬ 
dition separated from Himself. The Life of animals 
for reasons already mentioned, when taken from their 
bodies probably exists in an individual condition no 
more, their immortality being in their offspring; but 
with man a different law must prevail, because if 
Death were to man an eternal sleep, there would be a 
work of God entirely opposed to man’s just conceptions 
of His wisdom and His benevolence. Death, like 
other apparent evils, is an instrument absolutely 
necessary to train a perfectible being like man for a 
higher existence, and it is by no means unattended 
with advantages. 

For the good man, it is the new and happy birth of 
the soul. 

For the evil man it is the prison-gate of spiritual 
punishment. 

Death, moreover, is productive of far more good 
than evil. 

“If none were to die, none would rejoice in the birth 
“ of young children. If none were to die, there would 
“ be neither birth nor growth, nor labour, nor love, 
u nor marriage. 


39 


“ If none were to die, there would be no life, and 
“no enjoyment of life.” 

“ When a man dieth and leaveth his body, he wend- 
“ eth through the gate of oblivion and goeth to God, 

“ when he is born again he cometh forth from God, 
“ and in a new body maketh his dwelling; hence the 
“ saying the body to the tomb and the spirit to the 
“ womb, for so is man’s nature completed .”—The New 
Koran , questions c. xxn., v. 10, 11, 15. 

A FUTURE LIFE. 

The body, on death, has on this earth served its 
purpose, and as it is impossible that the Life which 
animated it can become non-existent, it follows that 
it must either be on this earth or elsewhere; but 
what object consistent with unerring wisdom and 
foresight, is there in taking away the life of man from 
this earth without translating it elsewhere ? It follows, 
therefore, that it is so translated, but not into a state 
of sleep for unnumbered years, since such a condition 
would be a waste of time; but into a higher or 
lower condition of existence, for without effecting a 
change, to remove man’s life from this earth would be 
egregious folly. God has most wisely concealed 
futurity from man, and there is therefore no act of 
man more impious than an endeavour to foretell 
events, except so far as they are inducible from 
facts known by man to exist. Now it is certain 
from geological truths, that this earth and the 
living creatures upon it were not all at one time 
brought into existence, but that creation is a thing 


40 


that advances from a lower to a higher organisation. 
Man may reasonably therefore believe that the same 
principle of progress will in futurity be applied to him. 
What a splendid and hopeful future this promises! 
To imagine that all the knowledge, all the moral attri¬ 
butes, all the happiness of the pure affections of human 
nature, all the benevolence of social intercourse which 
civilised man enjoys on earth, shall be carried with the 
soul after its escape from imprisonment within a mortal 
and painful body into another world, and there raised 
in the scale of Gods wondrous creation—there to en¬ 
joy, free from the operation of time, but still subject 
to God’s omnipotence, not only the divine revelations 
of science obtained by man whilst on earth, not only 
love in all its sympathy with God and His creatures, 
but further marvellous communications from the 
sources of Infinite intelligence; still higher duties and 
occupations than those which engage the good man on 
this earth ; still higher social happiness in the society 
of living beings, as immeasurably higher in attributes 
and organisation to man, as man is to animals. All 
this celestial felicity is apparent to the scientific theo¬ 
logian as the reward of a good life, and is not apparent, 
it is believed, to any other religionist in this world. 
If this indeed be the fruits of temporary good and 
temporary evil and man’s free-will and man’s immor¬ 
tality, then mankind have not existed in vain, and we 
may exclaim with the Psalmist, “ Oh God ! how 
“ manifold are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made 
“them all .’*—Psalm civ., v. 24. 


41 


Moreover, the scientific theologian believes in the 
fact of progress in future existences, and hence the 
very savage, the Papuan, the creature as yet subject 
only to the barbarous passions of human nature, may 
ultimately raise his individual existence higher and 
higher before Almighty God. 

THE NEW RELIGION. 

The present age may be termed the Age of Science, 
and as Science discloses to the human intellect laws so 
perfect and therefore adorable, as to lead to the convic¬ 
tion that the Originator of those laws must be a Being 
of Infinite Goodness, Wisdom, and Power, the intellect 
and soul of a highly civilised man rejects as unworthy 
of credit all actions alleged to be done by God, and 
every religion inconsistent with the sublime attributes 
of the Almighty so revealed to him («) God being 
perfect, all His laws must be perfect, both in their con¬ 
ception and operation, whilst they endure, inter¬ 

ference with them, after the creation of them, is there¬ 
fore incredible. It is upon this principle that science 
unconditionally rejects all miracles, regarding them as 
not only absolutely incapable of proof by any reliable 
evidence, but as the offspring of man’s imagination, a 
psychological faculty unbounded in its inventive 
power, and capable of exciting, amongst the childish 
and the ignorant, unbounded credulity. One of the 

(a) On this principle the Gospel miracles of restoring life to the dead 
eight to the blind, &c., are incredible, as the beneficiaries were not ex¬ 
empted from liability to be again subjected to human infirmities. It was, 
for example, cruel to permit Lazarus to die again, to be placed a second 
time in the grave. 



42 


instinctive properties of the human soul, as already 
referred to, is that of prayer, and one maxim of the 
scientific theologian is that God does nothing in vain y 
but as the physical laws of God are perfect and invari¬ 
able in their operations, it follows that prayer to God 
to suspend, alter, or vary His physical laws is impious 
and useless. 

The ignorant apply prayer for every want, the 
scientific theologian applies prayer only to those objects 
God can answer without violating his physical laws, 
and therefore, trusting in God’s goodness, he asks 
for spiritual aid only—which aid is never refused— 
a fact, of which every human being may be, if he 
pleases, his own witness. Remorse is another 
psychological property; one which is invariably 
caused by wrong actions, and it is amongst the most 
painful of human emotions; and hence the scientific 
theologian believes that remorse, if followed by 
amendment of life, through God’s mercy expiates 
wrong deeds, and that no vicarious pain can by God’s 
perfect justice be accepted. Scientific theology is then 
founded on belief in God—prayer to God—and free¬ 
will, aided by prayer. It recognises two agents or 
objects necessary to enable freewill to exist, viz. right 
and wrong, or good and evil; and it regards man as a 
progressive and perfectible creature, through the united 
operation of the foregoing causes, and it recognises 
contrition and newness of life as the only atonement 
for evil deeds. Lastly, it repudiates the existence of 
any Demon or Being antagonistic to the Deity, and it 


43 


regards the Deity as Infinite in Existence, Goodness, 
Wisdom, Power, and Benevolence. 

BIRTH-SIN. 

Tried by the foregoing test it may be asked, whether 
the scheme for the future welfare of the human race 
alleged by the Bible to have been specially designed by 
God, in consequence of the alleged disobedience of 
man’s first progenitors, responds to the highest re¬ 
ligious, moral, and intellectual conceptions of a highly 
civilised condition of human society. If not, then 
evidence of its supernatural origin is inadmissible, for 
a scheme alleged to be supernaturally revealed to man 
by man’s Creator, must be consistent with a Being of 
Infinite Goodness, Wisdom, Power, and Benevolence; 
otherwise it is incredible, since it makes the Creator 
inferior to the created. Now, there is probably no 
expression which conveys more impressively to the 
human intellect, and especially to the scientific theo¬ 
logian, an idea of the omnipotence of The Deity, and 
the insignificance of man, than the interrogatory found 
in the Book of Job, viz., “Where wast thou when I 
“laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou 
“ hast understanding.”—38 c. Job, v. iv. By That 
Omnipotent Being, He who laid the foundations of the 
earth, man was created. Now, why was man created? 
Why were such nude and savage creatures created at 
all? To be subjected to never-ending misery? No! 
would be the answer. Then how can they be so sub¬ 
jected? Because of disobedience to God, the Bible 


44 


Christian alleges. If so, all the first progenitors of man¬ 
kind had each a garden of Eden—each a forbidden tree 
—each disobeyed, and became the forefathers of a de¬ 
graded race, worthily deserving eternal condemnation 
for being born. It is with reference to that monstrous 
doctrine of the Fall of Man, that religious civilisation 
is most requisite for the good of mankind. It is an 
error that has been immeasurably detrimental to 
human happiness—it is the giant credulity of Christen¬ 
dom. The three in one and one in three Persons of the 
Deity is a dwarf credulity when compared with the 
baseless fabric of the Fall of Man . 

“ Look unto the heavens and see; and behold the clouds which 
** are higher than thou. If thou sinnest, what doest thou against 
*• him ?” * * * If thou be righteous what givest thou him ? 

** * * # Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art: and 

“ thy righteousness may profit the sou of man.”—Job, c. 35, v. 5, 

6, 7, and 8. 

It is certain then, that a thing created can occasion 
neither evil nor good to its creator, and therefore the 
punishment of the thing created by the Creator for 
doing evil to him, is tiger-like cruelty—it is inflicting 
pain for pain’s sake, and is an act of unpitying ma¬ 
lignity. According to the narrative, Adam and Eve 
were made capable of disobedience, that being so, it is 
certain that the Author of their existence had no right 
to punish them for disobedience. The punishment 
for wilfully creating evil, where evil can be felt , is 
founded on an entirely different principle—there the 
punishment is deserved. That inflicted, as alleged, on 
Adam and Eve was entirely undeserved. To give a 
person power to do an act or not as he pleases, and 


45 


then to tell him not to do it, and in the event of his 
doing it, to punish him and his unconscious and un- 
horn offspring with an eternal curse, is an idea that 
can have proceeded alone from some bewildered phi¬ 
losopher of the desert, utterly ignorant of those laws 
of good which manifest to the scientific theologian the 
beneficence of the hidden Deity. If, then, the dis¬ 
obedience of man could not injure God, no atonement 
for sin could be necessary, for there was none to atone. 
Other causes consistent with perfect justice, for the 
origin of evil, must therefore exist, and Scientific 
Theology has recently, and only recently, discovered 
those causes. (See the Article on Evil.) In truth, 
human nature came from the hand of God in the same 
condition as the earthly ore, to be smelted, refined, 
polished, and preserved by laws of progress, perfect in 
their origin, perfect in their operation, and so 
wondrosuly contrived that man becomes the origina¬ 
tor and fabricator of his own good or of his own evil, 
in this and every future life. Beyond all controversy, 
from laws perfect in their origin and perfect in their 
operation, there is progress in what is good, a diminu¬ 
tion in what is evil in human affairs. Slow the pro¬ 
gress may appear to us creatures of time, but we must 
remember that to God time is non-existent. Hence 
there exist in the human race elementary principles, 
which when fully developed, must end in the complete 
civilisation of mankind. For this great and good 
object no supernatural interposition by the Deity is 


46 


necessary. On the contrary, the introduction of super¬ 
natural agency in aid of that object, has everywhere 
thwarted and impeded religious civilisation Man 
then, being by nature in a state of progressive civilisa¬ 
tion, from what causes does that condition arise? It 
arises from this, that God, instead of creating a man 
perfect, in which event He would have been without 
any merit; God, from love to man, has made him 
perfectible by his own merit. For the sake of man, 
God relinquishes to man within limited and well- 
known boundaries His own omnipotence. This He does 
by giving man the privilege, at least while he is on 
this earth, of freewill, and surrounding him with good 
and evil to enable him to exercise that freewill. 
Without good and evil freewill could not exist, and 
without freewill man would be without responsibility; 
and it would be as reasonable for God to make a 
material locomotive the subject of reward and punish¬ 
ment as a human being. The story of the Fall was 
therefore an honest, but an entirely visionary attempt 
to account for the Origin of Evil. 

THE SUMMARY. 

Those who are acquainted with the social and re¬ 
ligious conditions of the various nations and of man¬ 
kind generally, are aware that side by side with every 
existing religion, there is not only abject superstition, 
but many barbarous and pernicious rites and customs; 
that human amity is as yet only very partially estab¬ 
lished between nation and nation, or indeed between 
man and man. 


47 


The effect of the European development of Christi¬ 
anity is thus described by a recent very learned, con¬ 
templative, and luminous writer. When speaking of 
the frequent executions for witchcraft, he observes: 

u I know that when we remember the frightful 
“ calamities that have from time to time flowed from 
u theological divisions ; when we consider the count- 
“ less martyrs who have perished in the dungeon or 
u at the stake, the millions that have fallen in the 
u religious wars, the elements of the most undying 
u dissensions that have been planted in so many noble 
“ nations, the fate of a few thousand innocent persons 
“ who have^been burnt alive seem to sink into insignifi- 
u cancel— Leckjf, vol. i., p. 148. 

The scientific theologian regards all these terrible 
events, painful as they are, necessary to excite those 
emotions in human nature which induce mankind to 
endeavour to emerge from a social condition so des¬ 
tructive to human happiness. Such events, by the 
strong contrast they excite, are in fact instruments of 
progress to mankind generally, and, therefore, not¬ 
withstanding such and similar events, the scientific 
theologian regards this world as a Creation absolutely 
perfect for the object for which it was created, and 
considers it impious in man in any way to question or 
find fault with it, believing that God allows Good and 
Evil to exist for the wisest and most benevolent objects, 
and can and will most abundantly compensate for all 
unmerited suffering. Scientific Theology accounts 


48 


for the origin and prevalence of sacrifice, of magic, and 
of witchcraft, and for all superstitions and cruelties in 
religion, to ignorance, and it points to the development 
of the European Religion, to show that it has re¬ 
tarded civilisation, and in that way done far more 
evil than good; and it contends that this has arisen 
from the absence of science, and from metaphysical 
dogmas instead of natural truths in religion, having 
been made the basis of religious education, and from 
religious worship rites and ceremonies having been 
manifested by gorgeous and dramatic ceremonials; 
appeals to the eye, the ear, and the feeling, rather than 
j to the heart and good deeds. To prove these facts, it 
alleges that Christianity, as developed by its sacerdotal 
authority, has always opposed, is always opposing, 
and always will oppose advances in knowledge; that 
under the sanction of Christianity as developed for 
more than fifteen centuries, the sanguinary tragedies 
of the Pagan Amphitheatre have in a different form 
been mercilessly repeated; that tens of thousands have 
fallen in religious contests; and that Christianity, 
after an existence of near eighteen centuries, has 
utterly failed either to check vice and immorality— 
to insure the amity of man—to arrest the tide of 
Atheism—or to remove from humanity the tragedies 
of war. It alleges that for seventeen hundred years, 
Christianity, as sacerdotally developed, has rendered 
the most learned and devout men, both of the laity and 
clergy, unable to extricate their intellects from the 
most abject superstitions. It alleges that the standing 


49 


armies of the world, the crimes and vices of society, 
may be traced not to any hereditary taint in human 
nature, but to ignorance arising from defective re¬ 
ligious education, because the religious sentiments in¬ 
culcated are not founded on the strongest and most 
exalted faculty of the human mind—the Reason—but 
on sentimental and unintelligible dogmas, to which the 
Reason is deliberately sacrificed. Scientific Theology, 
therefore, alleges that sacerdotal Christianity is be¬ 
coming effete, and that mankind are beginning to want 
a religion in accord with the religious intelligence of 
the age. These pages are a conscientious attempt to 
supply that want in part, and this, it is intended, shall 
be followed by a form of public worship corresponding 
thereto, based on the principle that men and women 
are not children of wrath, but creatures of God’s love 
and wisdom, and that God answers Spiritual Prayer? 
and that He deserves Praise and Adoration. 

Scientific Theology ventures to predict that, as this 
New Religion is based on principles as solid and true 
as the physical laws of God, (for example, those of 
Astronomy,) that when mankind come to understand 
its principles it will be universally adopted, and that 
the vivid and beautiful prophecy on the title page of this 
book, founded not on special communications from 
God, but on inductive science, will be verified to the 
letter. 

THE CONCLUSION. 

Neither the foregoing observations nor the three 
Tables called the Triune, with which this publication 


50 


ends, are of any value whatever, except so far as they 
may tend to the temporal welfare of mankind, by sub¬ 
stituting a religion of deeds for religions of metaphysi¬ 
cal dogmas. With the spiritual condition of any 
human being the writer has no right to interfere; but 
with the operation of religion on the secular affairs of 
mankind he has a right to interfere; and he contends 
that until mankind recognise good deeds as the para¬ 
mount object of human existence, irrespective of forms 
and varieties of Religious Faith, war, oppression, in¬ 
justice, ignorance, and barbarity will continue their 
pernicious operation on mankind from generation to 
generation. 


THE TRIUNE, ORTHE THREE TABLES FOR THE SOUL, 


No. 1. 

Wrong or Evil 

IS 

Atheism. 

Disbelief in a life 
after death. 

Hatred of God. 
Hatred of Mem. 
Distrust of God. 
Falsehood. 
Injustice. 
Inhumanity. 
Malevolence. 
Selfishness. 

Returning evil for 
good. 

Vindictiveness. 

Dishonesty. 

Indolence. 

Lust. 

Intemperance. 

Infidelity. 

Pusillanimity. 

Cowardice. 

Dishonour. 

Imprudence. 

Waste. 

Extortion. 

Meanness. 

Pride. 

Insolence. 

Hypocrisy. 

Calumny. 

Strife. 

<■Malediction. 
Ignorance. 
Discontent. 
Uncharitableness. 

MAN 

HAS 

FREE-WILL 

to do Wrong and 
thereby to insure 
for His Soul now 
and after Death, 

MISERY. 


No. 2. 

THE PRAYER. 

OUR FATHER who art and art Infinite, Hal¬ 
lowed be Thy name; May Thy Divine Spirit dwell 
within us, and enlighten and exalt our Souls ; May 
we, at all times, Thy Grace assisting us, exercise 
our Free-Will rightly, so that after death our souls 
may be found perfected before Thee, and may re¬ 
ceive The Eternal Benediction of Thee, our Crea¬ 
tor and Preserver, Amen. 

The Progress of Religious Civilisation , or 

THE CREED 

Of the English People in the Year 1966. 

I believe in One Self-existing Intellectual, Eter¬ 
nal, and Infinite God ; All-Good and All-Wise, 
Omnipotent and Omnipresent ; the Supreme Origi¬ 
nator, Creator, Preserver, and Governor, of all 
things; and that He is in His Nature both Spiritual 
and Invisibly Material and Sentient, with power 
to separate Matter from Himself, and to make 
Matter visible, and to dissolve Matter, and to re¬ 
store it to Himself ; and to form, transform, and 
organise, and to give or deny Intellect and Life to 
any Being created by Him ; and I believe that God 
has and can have no Likeness or Image, or Rival, 
or Competitor; and that God reveals such a quan¬ 
tity of His Works to each of His living creatures 
as He wills, and no more; and I believe that th® 
Infinite Universe is governed by Laws conceived 
and made by God in their nature perfect, and that 
a part of such Laws were made with the. Planetary 
Earth on which we are now, and with its inhabi¬ 
tants, for the spiritual, physical, and moral govern¬ 
ment thereof, so long as they endure ; and that 
such Laws have always continued, and are now un¬ 
changed, and have never been abrogated or super¬ 
seded ; and I believe that all Life proceeds from 
the Spirit of God, and that every Soul of Man is a 
Life with Intellect, Conscience, Passions, and Free- 
Will, incarnated in Man’s Body, and that subject 
to God’s Omnipotence Man’s Soul is indestructible; 
and I believe that God from Love to Man and in 
order to enable Man of his own Free-Will to exalt 
or degrade his own Soul before God, has caused 
every Soul of Man to be born with a Conscience 
for Right and for Wrong, and that God permits 
Man, for that purpose, whilst Man lives,, to do 
Right or to do wrong, as He pleases, according to 
the conditions in which each Soul is placed; and I 
believe that each Person’s Soul is by Death separ¬ 
ated from the body, and is then forthwith transla¬ 
ted by God from this Eaith, and is then forthwith 
rewarded or punished by God, by being either ex¬ 
alted or degraded in The Scale of His Infinite 
Creation, according to the deeds of that Soul, if 
any, whilst it was in the body, as they be Right or 
as they be Wrong; and I believe that such deeds 
are never equal to each other ; and I believe in 
the efficacy on Man’s Soul of Spiritual Prayer to 
God, and in His Forgiveness of wrong deeds.to the 
contrite Soul of Man, £both in this and m any 
future life; and I believe that whilst on this Plane¬ 
tary Earth The Human Race always has been, is, 
and will be, in a state of Probation for another 
life; and I believe in The Progress of Mankind, 
and in the perfectibility of the Human Race. Amen 

* FINIS. 


No- 3. 

Right or Good 

IS 

Belief in God. 

Belief in a Life 
after Death. 

Love of God. 

Love of Man. 
Trust in God. 
Truth. 

Justice. 

Humanity. 

Benevolence. 

Self-Denial. 

Returning Good 
for Evil. 

Forgiveness. 

Honesty. 

Industry. 

Chastity. 

Temperance. 

Fidelity. 

Fortitude. 

Courage. 

Honour. 

Prudence. 

Thrift. 

Generosity . 
Liberality * 
Humility. 

Modesty . 

Ingenuousness. 

Candour. 

Peace. 

Benediction. 

Knowledge. 

Content. 

Charity. 

MAN 

HAS 

FREE-WILL 

to do Right, and 
thereby to insure 
for His Soul novr 
and after Death, 

HAPPINESS. 

















Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Feb. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 




















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